Battle Spot Free Battles: AKA, Ubers 3vs3

[Theorymon]

I'm posting this because this has started to become a rather hot topic on IRC!

So as some of you may know, gamefreak made soft resetting for Legendaries more reasonable, and breeding being less time consuming, a lot of us have actually started to play on cart. And with that, gamefreak has also done something new: in Battle Spot free battles (Battle Spot is pretty much gen 6 GBU), NO POKÉMON ARE BANNED! This pretty much means that gamefreak has made an official Ubers matchmaker of sorts. While it sucks that there isn't a ratings system for it, it's a huge step up from what gen 5 offered. Plus, it could prepare us for an eventual official Ubers tournament if gamefreak chooses to do that again!

For those of you who are new to this metagame, here are the rules.

-Species Clause is still around
-Item Clause is around. This means you can only have one kind of item on your team.
-These battles are 3vs3. This means you choose only 3 Pokémon who are on your team for the match during team preview.
-Sleep Clause, OHKO Clause, and Moody Clause are NOT a thing in this metagame!

Sadly, I haven't really truely played this, as my only battle ready Pokémon are Xerneas, Yveltal, Ageislash, and Ditto lol. That being said, I DO have some experience with 3vs3, and a big thing to remember is you don't have to build your teams the same way as you would a normal Ubers team. 3vs3 is MUCH faster paced, so Stall is extremely uncommon. Also, you can build your team in a way where you have certain "set ups" of Pokémon to chose from. For example, you can actually get away with running two Mega Pokémon, and just not using them together, but having them for different team match ups.

And with that, let's discuss gamefreak's offical version of Ubers singles!

 

[superstar]

I know from Gen 5 GBU that things like Focus Sash attackers are very powerful in a 3v3 enviroment, since it is really fast paced. Every team should have a Aegislash, Xerneas, and Yvetal because each one counters one of the others. Mons that can sweep with minimal set-up like CB Talonflame and Sash Mewtwo would be good to bring too. TTar + Iron Head/EQ/Rock Slide Excadrill is a very difficult combo to stop when you don't have the defenses to stall it out, so a counter to this strategy like Mega Will-O-Wisp Bannette is a great idea (not sure if Breloom or Conk is legal?)

 

[PyroSpark]

I know from Gen 5 GBU that things like Focus Sash attackers are very powerful in a 3v3 enviroment, since it is really fast paced. Every team should have a Aegislash, Xerneas, and Yvetal because each one counters one of the others. Mons that can sweep with minimal set-up like CB Talonflame and Sash Mewtwo would be good to bring too. TTar + Iron Head/EQ/Rock Slide Excadrill is a very difficult combo to stop when you don't have the defenses to stall it out, so a counter to this strategy like Mega Will-O-Wisp Bannette is a great idea (not sure if Breloom or Conk is legal?)

I would think your team might need something for Blaziken as well since that and mewtwo/xerneas are in many, many, teams.

 

[Jibaku]

Ah yes I've been spamming this mode for a while now. Got ~100 battles under my belt but quantity doesn't mean a whole lot when the overall field for competition there is rather...mediocre.

So yes, getting good matches can actually be difficult and if you have a decent team you'll probably trash most players. Down below is a brief guide and some of my impressions. The way I see it, you'll run into these types of players

Wall of text

1) People with ingame teams. These range from pre-50 to those with a stack of Ubers and have zero idea on how to use them
2) People with ingame teams who boxed their cover legend for whatever reason.
3) People with "OU" teams. Sometimes hard to tell if they're 2) or 3) so always stay prepared. Medium-High threat level.
4) The Japanese players who run virtually the same thing every game. I'm specifically mentioning Japanese here because I haven't ran into another region that imitates their style or picks. These are the most dangerous players and you may find yourself not being able to use your Ubers at all if you want to win (so don't overrely on them). A lot of their standard picks can counter the top 3 Ubers well, so be careful. These players will typically not have Ubers since they're probably practicing for rated mode (coincidentally, our resident top10 rated player kd24 will tell you that their picks in rated are pretty much the same as in free mode).
5) The above player with Ubers. These are extremely rare, but they -will- give you a challenge.

The first two aren't something you need to prepare for because they're easy to crush. I've ran into a number of Mewtwos slower than my Yveltal (ty, Pressure activation message). I'll skip to covering 4).

Common Pokemon used by the Japanese players (and some non JPs). Probably the biggest threats in the metagame.
Mega Mawile, Klefki, Rotom-W, Mega Kangaskhan, Togekiss, Talonflame, Azumarill, Garchomp, Tyranitar, Scizor, Aegislash. Beware of parafusion antics.

Watch out for surprise sashes. If you have a feeling that Pokemon may be sashed (example: Greninja), find a safe route out if possible.

Speaking of surprises, good surprises win games in this mode. This is because you won't be running into the same person twice very often, and the fact that there's only 3 Pokemon available in one side of the field meaning that single KO can have a greater impact than in 6v6.

Priority moves are also very powerful in this speed based metagame. Yveltal and Talonflame will be your main choices here, followed by Scizor, Mawile, and Azumarill. They will also bypass Sticky Web so if you even run into a suicide lead galvantula you have a way out.

Carry a Thunder Wave immunity. Paralysis is extremely powerful status in this mode and sets up a lot of things.

I recommend bringing multiple mega stones in your team. Since it's a 3v3, you might find yourself in need to use a specific megaforme, and a different one, against different comps. Try not to bring more than 3, though.

Don't get destroyed by Speed Boost Blaziken.

Anyways enough of that. A relatively underused Pokemon I've had success with is Mega Ampharos. Lanturn aside (is this even available?), Mega Ampharos is the only Pokemon that can wreck the Talonflame/Rotom-W offensive duo and can cause issues to Togekiss and Klefki in its unevolved state. It hits extremely hard (about as much as Specs Jolteon, except it gets another STAB and doesnt lock itself), and as far as I'm concerned nothing new resists the Electric/Dragon/Fighting combo (short of Whimsicott who's unobtainable anyways), so you're bound to leave a massive dent to whatever comes in. Its speed is definitely a huge weakness (along with its unfortunate set of weaknesses), but it does its job well.

 

[Haruno]

My interest depends entirely on how well pokebank is implemented. If pokebank allows shit like noguardjask or huge power gigas to get through then I'll give up entirely on wifi. Though atm I seriously think the "best" battle spot uber battle teams will look somewhat similar to my 6th gen ubers team in the sense that mewtwo + aegis + xern + yveltal + filler + filler will be your staple choices on a team.

 

[Χerneas]

My interest depends entirely on how well pokebank is implemented. If pokebank allows shit like noguardjask or huge power gigas to get through then I'll give up entirely on wifi. Though atm I seriously think the "best" battle spot uber battle teams will look somewhat similar to my 6th gen ubers team in the sense that mewtwo + aegis + xern + yveltal + filler + filler will be your staple choices on a team.

WiFi battling from as far back as BW1 prevents pokemon that werent hatched that have egg moves. Even if Pokebank lets hackmons through, theres no way XY wifi battles will.

 

[Haruno]

WiFi battling from as far back as BW1 prevents pokemon that werent hatched that have egg moves. Even if Pokebank lets hackmons through, theres no way XY wifi battles will.

Ah I was unaware of that, good to know. Guess people will still use hackmons to bypass the shit that is battle Manson but that's pretty moot